Slow molasses drip under a tipped-up crescent moon.

Golden Hour in the Human Habitrail

Downtown Des Moines is blessed with a four-plus mile series of elevated corridors that make it possible to move between parking lots, offices, restaurants, stores, entertainment venues and government offices without having to brave the extremes of deep winter and steamy summer. The warren-like system is formally known as The Skywalk, but Katelin and I dubbed it “The Human Habitrail” before we knew that fact, and that nickname has kind of stuck for us now. I go down to the Habitrail occasionally when I need a break from the gym and speedwalk the corridors, which is especially fun to do around twilight, when you get all sorts of wonderful colors and shadows and auras as the sky transitions from blue to salmon to black (at night, anyway), the street lights come on, and the vague, gauzy films of condensed breath and sweat on the windows create weird reflections and unsettling ghost images. I share some sample shots I captured of Golden Hour in the Human Habitrail below, so you can see what I mean.